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A stream so narrow you barely got your feet wet separated a settlement for over four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, fields and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started commemorating their past. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Telling the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals drinking in the same inn, going to the very same religious building and placing their kids to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Then came the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians installed timber poles by the stream. For a year they occupied the whole hamlet, creating their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw back over the stream. For a while, locals could continue to hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to present ID, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a western local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time creating it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they desired to maintain. They chose a section on the west perimeter, near where a villager succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are conserved in addition to a collection of exhibits illustrating the most impactful dates in the village’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed particular approval to look after their crops; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but not the two, in case they sought to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but in excess of twice as many persons (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit each year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Current Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and large car park – is expected to